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Having lots of computer problems today with blog site, pictures did not get u!ploaded with post that follows (also need to remember to "preview" before "publishing"

Tara, Chris, Meredith, Eric and Greg - there is still shopping in Paris and Copenhagen

Shopping was good in Tallin

Tallin proved to be as much of a pleasant surprise (far above expectations) as St. Petersburg was!! Our streak of good luck is continuing. Yesterday in Petersburg, it started out to be a beautiful day however we did have some rain when we were visiting the cathedrals. Today in Tallin, the weather was spectacular. We started out the day with a tour of the historic part of Tallin (an extra perk from our SUPER travel agent Cookie). We decided not to do the second part of the tour which was a bus ride out to the countryside and spend some more time in the town of Tallin because the shopping opportunities seemed to be good. Lauren, Molly, James and Allison benefited from shopping in Tallin. One of today’s pictures is Kathy shopping for sweaters and hats (Molly and Lauren – that is where your presents came from). We also ran into four of our new-found friends from our Berlin and St. Petersburg tours and knew that this was the place for purchases for “older” children as Sharon, my shopping cohort from Plano was coming out with two shopping bags of purchases. (Picture of us in front of the store). Final picture is Jim and I modeling purchases for James and Allison – ski hat for James and a hat-scarf (a lot cuter than it looks in picture) for Chicago weather.
Tallin was a short stay (ship left at 2) and we were able to catch some sun at the pool before some rain showers moved in. Tomorrow is a double bonus for catching up on some rest after 5 straight ports – a sea day and we gain back the first of the two hours that we lost

St. Pete Day 2

We were glad that today started a little later. We had a terrific dinner last night celebrating Kathy and John’s 38th anniversary in the specialty restaurant on the ship. The whole morning was spent in the Hermitage Museum. We were able to get early entry into the Hermitage with our tour and it really helped to get a jump on the crowds. It was quite an experience to see so many Italian, Dutch and French Impressionists in one museum. We had lunch in a local place that had delicious Russian meat pies and finished the day with some beautiful Russian Orthodox Cathedrals. We have one more port tomorrow, Tallin, Estonia before a much needed day at sea.

Saturday in St. Petersburg

We survived losing another hour and met our group for the St. Petersburg tour at 7:30AM. We connected with 7 other cruisers through the Cruise Critic discussion board and booked a private tour with Alla Tours. We were SO glad we did, we left behind long lines of people lined up for bus tours and met our tour guide Ekaterina and started out to the outskirts of St. Petersburg. We first toured the beautiful formal gardens and elaborate palace of Catherine the Great. We had lunch and spent the afternoon in Peterhof Park where there are beautiful fountains and the palace of Peter the Great. We returned to St. Petersburg via hydrofoil across the Bay of Finland. Our luck has continued with good weather as you can see from the picture that was taken in front of the palace of Peter the Great in Peterhof. There is so much to see in St. Petersburg that the ship stays overnight. Tomorrow we will be staying in the city of St. Petersburg visiting the Hermitage Museum and the major cathedrals of St. Petersburg.

Short Update from Helsinki

Well this will be short since there was not a lot in Helsinki, very small capital city with only about 500,000 inhabitants. We opted to tour a tour through the ship that included an overview of the city and then a drive to the countryside to a quaint fishing village of Porvoo. We had lunch at a small inn and then a scenic ride back. Weather was clear and cool in the AM, then it clouded over in the afternoon and we were able to avoid some scattered showers. We were glad it was an easy tour as tonight we lose another hour as we sail to St. Petersburg. We will be there for two days and our tour begins at 7:30am tomorrow.

Stockholm was super!

We arrived in Stockholm to brisk 62 degree temperatures but with clear skies, we were sure it would warm up soon. We had booked a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus tour that started right at the ship. Stockholm is a relatively small capital city (1.2 million) and we stayed on the bus for one round to get a general idea of the layout of the city and ended up back at the Royal Palace for the magnificent changing of the guard at noon. We walked around the Old Town section of the city and then got back on the bus to visit the Vasa museum – the remains of a massive Swedish sailing vessel that sank on it’s maiden voyage in the early 1600’s. The ship left at 5pm and we has a special treat for the second formal night – we were invited to sit at the captain’s table again. It turned out it was actually the cruise director and one of the first officer’s that were hosting the captain’s table tonight but it was still fun anyway. Tonight we lose an hour as we travel further east and will now be 8 hours ahead of CST. Tomorrow, we will be in Helsinki.

Special Message to Lussen & Sheppard Kids

Here is your Christmas present – we are enjoying it now!!!

Sea Day

Today was a somewhat restful day at sea. Now that we are in the Baltic the seas have calmed down but it was still cool outside. Tomorrow we arrive in Stockholm at 10am but we have been told that the 5 hours before we arrive in Stockholm are quite picturesque as we pass through many channels. We plan on touring Stockholm on our own since we have heard everything is close by. We are expecting temperatures in the low 60’s.

Sorry about last post - do not know how to edit after publishing :(

If it's Tuesday, it must be Berlin

Tuesday, the shipped docked a Rostock on the northern coast of Germany, about 3 hours north of Berlin. We had been undecided as to whether or not we wanted to take the 3 hour ride into Berlin for about 6 hours of touring. One of our new found friends from the CruiseCritic website (who also happens to live in Plano) had found a great private tour company that would pick us up at the dock in a 16 passenger Mercedes van and then drive to Berlin where we were met by our guide and had a comprehensive tour of Berlin. We ended up with a group of 8 – ourselves, Kathy and John, Joel and Sharon from Plano and Dustin and Alicia from Greenwich.
It was quite chilly when we got off the ship but by the time we got to Berlin, it was 72 and clear. Our ride to Berlin included a rest stop at McDonalds (thought I was on the Jersey Turnpike).
We were met in Berlin by our guide Anaka, who spoke beautiful English and was extremely knowledgeable about her city. One of our first stops was a theme that we saw all day – a contrast of the unbelievable destruction from the war and the rebirth. The ruins of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church (nicked named the Hollow Tooth which was almost totally destroyed in the war stands next to a beautiful new Lutheran church built in the 60’s.
The first picture today was taken at Schloss Charlottenburg, the summer residence of Sophie Charlotte, wife of Frederick III. Our efficient guide got us to the Reichtag, Undter Den Linde, Brandeburger Gate, Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie along with various stops at the remains of the wall. We thought Berlin was a beautiful clean city, full of history and our tour guide was excellent. Our last picture of the day was taken against one of the few reamaining parts of the wall where they have allowed artists to paint murals. Our guide suggested this background depicting the mainly faces that passed through. Kathy and Alicia were resting in the bus and not in this picture.
We got back to the ship at 9:30 (still full daylight), enjoyed some delicious food and now ready for another day of relaxing at sea.

Recovery at Sea

First day at sea was still pretty rough and did not calm down until about 5 when we turned from the North Sea to the Baltic. Waves peaked at about 20 feet so there was a lot of motion on the ship. We took it pretty easy as we were still recovery from jet lag. We did however enjoy the first formal dinner and Broadway revue at the show.

24 Hours in Amsterdam

Just finished hectic first 24 hours of our trip. We arrived in Heathrow early Saturday morning to continue on to final destination of Amsterdam. Our travelling companions, the Lussens, just barely made the flight but unfortunately their luggage did not (delivered to the room later that night). We saw the top three highlights in Amsterdam, t he Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum along with a canal tour of Amsterdam. Boarded the ship around 3 today and will sleep WELL tonight. Sunset however is at about 10:30pm. The captain has warned of rough seas as we approach the North Sea. Thanks Cookie and Cruise Planners for the wine and a perfect table for four in the dining room. Monday hopefully will be restful day at sea.

On our way!

At JFK about to board for London. Anyone that has ever traveled with me knows that I do not travel light and the 50 lb limit does pose a problem. Was very happy that I did not lose an ounce of weight when my large bag checked in at 50 lbs on the nose!

Itinerary

Itinerary
Fri, Jun 20 DFW – Heathrow-Amsterdam
Sat, Jun 20 Amsterdam, Holland
Sun, Jun 22 Amsterdam, Holland
Mon, Jun 23 At Sea
Tue, Jun 24 Berlin (Warnemunde), Germany
Wed, Jun 25 At Sea
Thu, Jun 26 Stockholm, Sweden
Fri, Jun 27 Helsinki, Finland
Sat, Jun 28 St. Petersburg, Russia
Sun, Jun 29 St. Petersburg, Russia
Mon, Jun 30 Tallinn, Estonia
Tue, Jul 01 At Sea
Wed, Jul 02 Copenhagen, Denmark
Thu, Jul 03 At Sea
Fri, Jul 04 Amsterdam, Holland –Paris, France
Sat, Jul 05 Paris, France
Sun, Jul 06 Paris, France
Mon, Jul 07 Paris, France DFW